Sierra Nevada habitat (©Pam Flick/Defenders of Wildlife)

Pamela Flick, California Representative

Good news! Three rare amphibians in the Sierra Nevada are set to hop onto the list of endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in late April that the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae) and northern distinct population segment of mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) have been proposed for endangered species status, while the Yosemite toad (Anaxyrus canorus) may receive threatened species classification. More than two million acres of critical habitat may also be designated to help protect these species in their high elevation territory.

Mountain yellow-legged frog (©Jason King/USFS)

Until recently, the yellow-legged frogs in the Sierra Nevada were believed to be the same species, but they actually took different genetic roads around 2.2 million years ago. These species were historically described as extremely abundant, but today are absent from more than 92 percent of their historic range. The Yosemite toad is currently found in less than half of its former territory.

A majority of the high elevation habitat for these frogs and toads – from 4,500 to 12,000 feet above sea level – is found on public land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. While these are both federal agencies, their management regimes are quite different. The National Park Service has a robust conservation mission and as such, national park lands have much stronger protections than national forests, where under their multiple use mandate, activities such as timber harvesting, livestock grazing and off-road vehicle use can destroy important habitat. Not surprisingly, populations of these Sierran amphibians have persisted in greater numbers and distribution in the more protected national parks compared to the surrounding lands managed by the Forest Service.

So why are these once common and widespread frogs and toads now dangling so precariously on the edge of extinction? A wide variety of factors have contributed to their decline. As with so many species disappearing around the world, habitat loss and fragmentation are key threats to wildlife. Dams and water diversions, road building, timber harvest and recreational use all lead to loss of habitat as well. Climate change and long-term drought also threaten these highly water-dependent species.

Grazing livestock damage these amphibians’ vital habitat. (©Pam Flick/Defenders of Wildlife)

We also lose individual frogs and toads due to predation; non-native bullfrogs eat them, as do fish. This can become a bigger problem when trout are intentionally stocked in historically fishless high elevation lakes and streams, introducing more predators to an area where frogs and toads have had few in the past. Another key threat is disease, including the chytrid fungus, Batrachochuytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), which has been strongly associated with dramatic amphibian declines worldwide.

The Yosemite toad has been hit especially hard by more than a century of unsustainable livestock grazing practices. The high elevation meadows and streamside systems that these toads prefer are extremely sensitive to disturbance. Livestock often congregate in and near sensitive water sources, trampling stream banks and causing wet meadows to lose water critical to the toad’s survival. Approximately one-third of all known Yosemite toad habitat is within active Forest Service grazing areas. Despite the fact that there has been a reduction of livestock allowed in these areas, the damage has been done, and the meadows continue to suffer from eroded channels, bare patches from heavy trampling and grazing, altered plant composition and reduced plant production.

Yosemite toad (©Pam Flick/Defenders of Wildlife)

Designation of more than two million acres of critical habitat for these frogs and toads will go a long way toward protecting them. This designation will include lands and waters essential to the conservation of the species and may require special management considerations or protection. But it’s important to note that critical habitat only means that we have to ensure actions taken by federal agencies will not destroy key habitat needed by these species. The designation does not affect land ownership, and continued grazing and habitat development could continue to be an obstacle to these species’ recovery.

Defenders strongly supports the proposed protections for these rapidly declining amphibian species to pull them back from the brink of extinction. We have been leaders in helping to revise national forest plans in the Sierra Nevada to better account for the role of wildlife, and our collaborative work on the Dinkey Landscape Restoration Project on the Sierra National Forest includes some of the lands proposed as critical habitat. We hope that by making their native range a safer place to live, we’ll be helping the Yosemite toad and yellow-legged frogs edge closer to recovery.

Frogs, newts and salamanders all have one very important thing in common: they’re amphibians, and that means they’re members of the most endangered group of animals in the world. Amphibians are indicator species, very sensitive to changes in the environment, and their status helps scientists see how an ecosystem is functioning.

Alejandra presents her report at CITES CoP 16.

Today one-third of all amphibian species are considered threatened or endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the specific threats to this group of animals is as varied as the species themselves. It includes habitat loss, climate change, pollution, disease and more, but one thing making it all worse is the wildlife trade. Not only are frogs removed from the wild to be placed in the pet and food trades, but moving these species around the globe has contributed a great deal to the spread of diseases that affect amphibians, such as the chytrid fungus that has led to the decline in populations of countless species of frogs.

At every CITES conference, there are a number of side events — presentations to educate those attending the conference on a number of issues pertaining to wildlife and trade. Last week, we teamed up with ProWildlife and the Animal Welfare Institute to put on a presentation to highlight the impact of international trade in amphibians – a trade that amounts to millions of live frogs, newts and other amphibians traded every year for the pet and food market. The event focused a great deal on the increasing trade in live amphibians to the United States, as well as the increase in frozen frog legs to the European Union. Sandra Altherr from ProWildlife and I presented a report [PDF] that we authored together about impacts of the frog leg trade. Even in the U.S., more than half of the 25 million live frogs imported every year are part of this culinary practice.

Toad Mountain harlequin frog.

The other two experts we invited spoke not only about the direct impacts of the international amphibian trade, but also its indirect effects. Jonathan Kolby from the James Cook University of Australia and Mark Auylia from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research spoke about the spread of amphibian diseases through the international wildlife trade and the Risk Assessment of Chytridiomycosis to European amphibian diversity, respectively. Many CITES delegates and other non-governmental organizations attended the event. We were able to distribute our report to the attendees and even handed out frog pens to give people a physical reminder that amphibians are at risk from international trade. We will continue to keep this crucial issue on the conference radar.

One of the proposals we helped work on this year was for the Machalilla’s frog (Epipedobates machalilla), and I’m happy to report that it passed! I worked very closely with officials from Ecuador to help this proposal be presented and adopted – I was even able to speak on the Conference floor in support of it. Ecuador presented the proposal to list the Machalilla’s frog in Appendix II, and the Committee adopted the proposal by consensus.

• Not all frogs can leap, or even hop. The desert rain frog (Breviceps macrops) has legs that are too short to hop. Instead, it walks.
• Male frogs of the genus Pipa are known to defend their territory by jumping at and then wrestling other males.
• The New Guinea bush frog (Asterophrys turpicola) takes jump attacks one step further: before it jumps at a strange frog, it inflates itself and shows off its blue tongue.
• Stumpffia tridactyla are normally slow-moving critters, but when they’re startled they can abruptly jump up to 8 inches. That doesn’t sound very far, but these little guys are less than half an inch long!
• The Fuji tree frog (Platymantis vitiensis) may be the leaping stuntman of the frog world. Each time it leaps, it twists in the air—sometimes even 180 degrees—to throw predators off its trail.
• The Larut torrent frog (Amolops larutensis) gets its name from a nifty leaping trick: it can jump into a fast-moving stream and back to its usual perch, the underside of a rock, without being affected by the current.
• Similarly, the parachuting red-eyed leaf frog (Agalychnis saltator) gets its name because it speeds to mating opportunities by jumping from trees with finger-and toe-webbing spread wide.
• The record for longest jump by an American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) recorded in a scientific paper is a little over 4 feet. But scientists who went to the Calaveras County Fair, which Mark Twain’s short story made famous for frog jumping, found that more than half the competitors bested that record—and one jumped more than 7 feet in one leap!
• The Guinness Book of World Records doesn’t include any frogs for their leaping ability. But it does track human performance in frog jumping (jumping while holding one’s toes). There are records listed for the longest frog jump and the fastest frog jumping over 10 and 100 meters.

Get your frog fix this leap day by checking out this  frogtastic video and song written by Alex Culbreth (produced by  Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project)

$1 million in cash. Gold bars. Diamonds. Rolex watches. 20 rhinoceros horns.

Father and baby white rhinoceros. Nakuru National Park, Kenya.

What do these items all have in common?

No, they’re not all items you’ll find in a billionaire’s home. They were all seized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and local law enforcements in a major crackdown on illegal wildlife trade. According to a story today in the LA Times, successful raids took place in a dozen states around the country last weekend.

International crime isn’t just about drug cartels and money-laundering. The international wildlife trade is worth billions of dollars annually, much of it totally illegal under both U.S. and international law.

The most recent enforcement action targeted smuggling rings that traffic rhinoceros horns, which are wrongly believed to cure cancer in Vietnam and China. As a result of the animal’s dwindling numbers, rhino horns are worth upwards of $20,000 per pound on the black market, or nearly $500,000 for a single horn.

But the problem goes far beyond rhinos. Defenders has been working hard in recent years to curb the illegal trade of sharks, parrots, sea turtles and frogs. Many of these species are threatened with extinction, yet still remain a valuable global commodity as food, in the pet trade, in traditional medicine, and for other purposes.

“We need stronger political will, more international cooperation and better consumer education in order to curb the illegal wildlife trade.” –Defenders International Counsel Alejandra Goyenechea

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the United States is one of the world’s largest markets for wildlife, both legal and illegal. In fact, we’re the largest importer and exporter of wildlife products, putting us right at the center of global wildlife trade.

That’s why our international wildlife expert Alejandra Goyenechea will be pushing for better enforcement of laws governing illegal wildlife trade at an important meeting this summer of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).

“Unfortunately, illegal international wildlife trade is rarely detected and prosecuted due to lack of budget and manpower in countries around the globe. The penalties are relatively low in most countries as well, especially compared to drug and weapon trade,” says Alejandra. “We need stronger political will, more international cooperation and better consumer education in order to curb the illegal wildlife trade. Only tougher enforcement will save species from extinction.”

CITES protects more than 35,000 species worldwide and has members from 175 countries. It is one of the most effective international mechanisms in the world today for halting the trade in species threatened with extinction and in fostering sustainable use of other vulnerable species.

Click here to learn more about what Defenders is doing to stop the illegal wildlife trade.

Limestone salamander. © Gary Navis

The endangered limestone salamander lives nowhere else in the world except in the lower Merced River region of California. But if a local hydropower company has its way, crucial habitat for this slippery salamander will soon be underwater.

And that’s bad news for this extremely rare amphibian, which is one of the few species of salamander that survives solely on land.

Emerging during cool, damp weather, limestone salamanders dwell much of the year below ground to escape the Merced River canyon’s hot, arid climate. They breathe through their skin, and because they lack lungs or gills, they must remain moist to move oxygen out of air into their bodies.

Up until recently, the limestone salamander has had things pretty good in the canyon. Its habitat is so remarkable that it has been designated a Wild and Scenic River, which means a good stretch of it — from the beginning in Yosemite National Park to the McClure Reservoir in central California — is protected from development.

The Merced River flows through Yosemite National Park

That’s the way Wild and Scenic River protection is supposed to work, but some members of Congress have other ideas. U.S. Representative Jeff Denham of California has introduced two bills that would strip Wild and Scenic Rivers Act protections from a portion of the Merced River in the Golden State, so that the Merced Irrigation District can expand its reservoir and sell more water to make electricity.

But expanding the McClure will submerge key limestone salamander habitat at the worst possible time in the late spring and early summer — when they are cloistered underground alongside their eggs. Even if they beat the rising waters to the surface, their chances of escape are slim. They will still have to scramble to higher grounds during some of the hottest, driest, deadliest days of the year.

The first bill (HR 869) aims to make room for the expansion by rolling back protections for a section of the river directly upstream of the reservoir. If passed, Congress would set a dangerous precedent, marking the first time lawmakers have ever taken protections away from a Wild and Scenic River. Even worse is that the bill would allow the reservoir to be so vastly enlarged that it will block what is currently a free-flowing river of national and local importance.

This outrageous move completely undermines the intent of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and is likely to kill endangered limestone salamanders, which is illegal under California law.

This broad proposal could have lasting impacts on the Merced as well as other protected rivers across the country – all for the short-term gain of a single water district.

The other legislation (HR 2578) is a backdoor attack on the Merced River’s protections. It seeks to move the Merced River’s legal boundary line above the proposed hydropower project’s border. Officially, the bill would establish a policy mandating that Wild and Scenic River boundaries cannot overlap with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission hydropower project boundaries. But this broad proposal could have lasting impacts on the Merced as well as other protected rivers across the country – all for the short-term gain of a single water district.

This bad news for people who cherish and depend on these special rivers, but it could doom the tiny limestone salamander to extinction. Defenders is working to put a stop to these misguided proposals. Stay tuned as the saga unfolds.

(…a special installment of “Can’t Live Without ‘Em”)

That’s right. A new report from the good folks at Crop Life America identifies a cure for our nation’s prevailing economic ills: PESTICIDES!

Bald eagles were nearly wiped out in the 1970s due to the harmful effects of the pesticide DDT. Photo courtesy US Military

Turns out, pesticides create an additional $82 billion by improving crop yields, with “spin-off effects” of $166.5 billion in related industries. The report also concludes that pesticides have produced environmental benefits by quadrupling yields of corn and wheat without having to clear additional land. Who knew?

Of course, there’s absolutely no mention of the indirect costs on America’s native wildlife or public health from spilling toxic chemicals into our waterways. Nor is there any evaluation of the long-term impacts of agribusiness and industrial-scale monoculture, both of which are responsible for dismantling local food networks and putting the small family farmer out of business.

Let’s not forget that less than 40 years ago, the widespread use of DDT had virtually eradicated bald eagles and peregrine falcons, and pesticides today continue to wreak havoc on fish and amphibian species across the country.** (Read Defenders factsheet to learn more about the real impacts that pesticides have on the environment.)

Now, we all have to eat. And certainly pesticides will continue to play an important role in feeding the country. But no economic assessment can be complete without also examining the impact that pesticides have on water quality, human health, and the myriad species that must endure these poisons in their habitat.

Crop Life America has been lobbying Congress to weaken protections from pesticides that keep our drinking water safe and our people and wildlife healthy. This one-sided report is just their latest attempt to exploit our nation’s current economic downturn in order to boost corporate profits for the pesticide manufacturers and agribusinesses they represent.

Pacific salmon are just one of many species at risk from pesticide poisoning.

At-risk species like Pacific salmon and steelhead, which have tremendous economic value of their own, are now threatened with extinction in large part because of toxic run-off into our rivers and streams from farms sprayed with pesticides. The truth is that we need stronger protections to limit the damage that pesticides inflict on the environment, not weaker ones.

If pesticides are to be used, we must do a better job of making sure they don’t harm humans and wildlife. Rolling back environmental protections and dumping ever more pesticides onto the land and into our water is not a recipe for sustainable economic growth.

Help Defenders stand up to powerful special interests like Crop Life by supporting better protections from pesticides.

**NOTE: A recent survey of 583 conservation scientists found that 99.5% of respondents believe that a serious loss of biological diversity is imminent.